Staffordshire fire chief praises vigilant residents

Staffordshire’s Chief Fire Officer, Peter Dartford, has praised the vigilance of the county’s residents after no major incidents were reported during the weekend’s national FBU strike.

There were just four emergency calls made on Friday afternoon - the first period of strike action. One of the calls was made because of smoke coming from a vehicle, and in another instance firefighters had to free a person trapped in a lift.

There were 22 calls made on Saturday and 13 on Sunday.

Mr Dartford said: “I would like to thank the communities of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent for listening to our safety advice and taking responsibility for their own wellbeing and that of their family and friends.

“We had robust contingency plans in place which enabled us to handle the calls that we received.

"The vigilance people have shown helped to ease the pressure on the Service at a time when firefighter numbers were reduced. While we had some busy periods during the 22 hours of industrial action, our plans coped well at all times.”

The strike took place between 12pm until 5pm on Friday, 2pm on Saturday until 2am Sunday and then from 10am until 3pm Sunday in a dispute with the government over pensions.